The Prisoner
by Slx99
Summary: Piecing together what he learns of his father, Luke Skywalker set out to the Imperial Academy with a clear objective: find and free his father. Now he is close to reaching his goal – or is he?


A/N

This story is for Treenahasthaal in our Secret Santa Fic Exchange.

Oh boy, Treena, it is intimidating to write for you. I admire your skill and the way your stories manage to make my stomach turn upside down and my eyes stay glued on the words. I wanted to write you more drama and more angst, just as you asked for, but it didn't happen, not this time, maybe one day I finish the story I had first in mind. Life happened. I hope you will still enjoy this little ficlet.

I also wanted to say how very sorry I was to hear of your loss.

Many thanks to Spellcleaver for reading through this mess and pointing out some errors. The story was by no means finished when she read through, so all mistakes are mine.

o

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A shudder rocked through the ship betrayed the moment they came out of hyperspace. Luke sat far away from the viewports in the cockpit, considered very much non-essential for passengers or cargo of a _Sentinel_-class shuttle. But he could well imagine the looming Star Destroyer _Devastator_outside that they were now approaching with their sublight engines. It could only be his imagination, but it seemed to Luke that the very air in the pressurized shuttle dropped by a few degrees, now they were in such proximity to Lord Vader.

It made Luke's nerves flutter and he wished he could just turn around. But that was not an option. Too long had he worked and planned for this moment. He needed to push aside the fear threatening to overtake his carefully gathered courage.

He needed to be brave.

He needed to save his father.

Luke turned to R3-D2, powered down next to him. He patted his dome, his faithful companion since Luke throughout the academy. He had found the little droid stuck in a power coupling. Maintenance would have just scrapped the droid, the repair too costly to not just commission a new one. But Luke had snuck the little astromech in his quarters - repaired the fritzed-out electronics and fried datachips. Finally, after many nights of work, the red light set in the droid's top had reignited and ever since Luke had a resourceful and loyal little friend with him.

So loyal that R3 had insisted on coming along with Luke on this most dangerous part of his plan, which was saying something since this whole journey he had embarked on was dangerous already.

"Okay, R3," Luke said quietly. "You just roll straight through the hangar and then wait for me in the corridor. Just act casual. If all goes well, no one will even question why you came along."

R3 whistled with an air of impatience.

"I know, I know," Luke said. "You know the plan. Sorry. Guess I'm just nervous."

R3 beeped reassuringly.

"Thanks, buddy. We just have to find him and then we're out again, right. It will be easy. Very easy." Maybe if he said it to himself and R3 a few more times he could make himself believe it.

Luke stood up when he heard the shuttle's landing ramp depressurizing, brushing over his neatly pressed uniform, and straightened the cap on his head. He shouldered his bag, carrying his standard issue spare uniforms and the few belongings he had brought with him on this crazy endeavour.

He took in the hangar on his way down the boarding ramp. It was much smaller than the ones he knew from flight academy, but the organized frenzy was just the same as in any planetside hangars. TIEs were being moved into their docking stations mounted on durasteel beams that spanned the length of the room. Astromech droids zoomed around to complete repairs and a patrol of stormtroopers stood by.

Business as usual. It should be reassuring.

_Focus. Don't slip up now_, Luke told himself firmly. _They have no reason to suspect unless you give them one._

Luke scanned the hangar, spotting an officer with a yellow cord, marking him as the acting commanding officer of this area. Luke turned his step toward him.

"Ensign Luke Lars, reporting for duty, sir," he said, saluting as per regulations. He held out the datapad with his reassignment papers, from the first letter to the last a product of R3's slicing capabilities.

R3 had turned his marching order to an outer rim posting into a placement with Death Squadron. The dream position for many blue-eyed cadets. But Luke hadn't gone to all these lengths to further a career. All he cared about was that wherever Death Squadron went, Vader was too and thus, Luke's father.

The officer curtly returned the salute and accepted his datapad. His gaze was glued to Luke's face some long seconds, making Luke's nervousness spike. Then he turned to scan the datapad's content. Behind the man's back, Luke could see R3 trundling past.

It seemed to take the man an inordinately long amount of time to read through the pad. Luke could feel his hands turn sweaty. Any moment now and the man would flag down the patrol and have him arrested, any moment now-

"Very well, report to your commanding officer in section 928 to be assigned quarters and receive your orders," the officer said, sounding bored. The man typed a signature code and handed the datapad back to Luke.

Luke saluted again and turned on his heel to march off in the direction of the main hall, where R3 had rolled too. Sure enough, R3 hovered behind the double blast doors. The little droid followed him when Luke walked past, doing his best to project an air of confidence even though he felt very much like he had just delivered himself into the rancor pit.

But it was too late now to turn away. He was here where he had to be. His father had been a prisoner of the Empire for almost two decades. Now Luke would finally find him and free him from the dangerous Lord Vader that held him captive on board.

"Okay, R3," he said when they were alone in the turbolift. "Let's find you a quiet place to log into the main computer! The sooner we find my father, the sooner we are out of here."

They had made it in alright. R3 would eradicate all evidence of him and Luke arriving and they could set up shop in the scarcely used maintenance corridors.

If they were careful, no one would be any the wiser of their presence on board.

Now all they had to do was find Anakin Skywalker.

Oh, and then rescue him from right under Lord Vader's nose, too.

ooo

Vader stepped into the darkened room that served as his hardly used office. The faint glow of the still switched on screen was illuminating it. It couldn't have been long ago when the intruder had tampered with it. They had to be close. Vader reached out with the Force.

The myriads of lifeforms around him that populated the Star Destroyer made it hard to pinpoint any one in particular. But when he probed deeper, he could sense a nervous energy. It was almost vibrating with breathless fear and it was _close_. Close enough, in fact, to be still in these quarters. Perhaps hiding to ambush him. Or merely petrified hoping beyond any reasonable hope to escape him.

A predatory grin tugged at the scarred skin of Vader's face.

They wouldn't escape him. Oh, he would enjoy this. In all likelihood, he had uncovered the perpetrator behind all the mysterious events of the past weeks. The nonsensical break-ins into the ship's brig, where none of the prisoners had vanished. The even more absurd break-in into the unused secondary brig. The numerous failures of surveillance equipment and unauthorized accesses into classified systems. All testament to the spy's remarkable slicing capabilities and intricate knowledge of the Star Destroyer's intricate workings.

It must be a skilled spy with an objective Vader could make neither head nor tail of.

Yet.

He would get his answers now.

Vader strode closer to the terminal to inspect what the spy had been so keen to find. The last search was incomplete, the cursor was blinking dully behind the letters the spy had managed to type before Vader had ostensibly interrupted them.

But the words still managed to make his respirator stumble to pick his breathing up to match his faster pumping heart.

_Anakin Skywal-_

Most unexpected. And concerning. For almost twenty years, Vader had been certain that save for his master anyone who knew of his former identity had been silenced forever. But that seemed no longer the case. This proved more dangerous than a rebel spy trying to gather intel of the imperial fleet.

Vader turned his full attention back to the presence nearby, its signature tainted in the Force with apprehension and fear and strong determination.

He was about to reach for his comlink to order a patrol to do a sweep of his quarters and the surrounding area. But it turned out that this wouldn't be necessary. The Force was warning him in time for his audio receptors to pick up the small rustle of clothes and the sound of a blaster being cocked.

Vader turned around to face his opponent.

The young man was clad in the grey jumpsuit techs wore. A convenient, plausible cover to inconspicuously gain access to many areas on board. He kept a blaster trained firmly on Vader,

Fool. He would soon learn that a blaster wouldn't help him much against him. There would be little satisfaction for Vader to exterminate this pathetic lifeform.

The young man, merely a boy, really, was glaring at him. But Vader was not fooled as he scanned his quarry. He could see how the muzzle of the blaster was shaking ever so slightly, could see the tenseness in his frame that shouted _flight_and certainly not _fight_. This was no hardened spy. Just a boy that got lucky or, perhaps, was a little more resourceful than others.

Perhaps he could goad the lad into telling him what he needed to know, rendering any interrogation unnecessary. It would be more satisfying to cut him down than to bear the embarrassment of having such a green boy fooling them all for weeks.

"Anakin Skywalker," Vader stated.

It was enough to shake the boy out of his stupor. Anger flashed through the Force.

"That's right," the young man spat. "I know you are holding him here. Release him." He raised his blaster a little to lend weight to his demand.

Vader was taken aback. This wasn't the reaction he had been expecting. The Force was humming around them, but Vader could not quite make sense of it. It was unnerving to hear the boy plead for his former self like this.

The tell-tale whistle of an astromech droid crackled over an open com, making the boy jump. "Get out of here, R3," the boy hissed. "I'll be fine."

Vader's eyes narrowed behind his mask. A boy and a reprogrammed astromech. It was truly embarrassing how they had managed to show up the crew of the Devastator. He'd make sure to weed out such incompetence before such blunder could reach his master's ears.

"Anakin Skywalker is dead," Vader stated coolly.

His words let the colour drain from the boy's face.

"He's- he's dead? That's impossible, I know he's here."

Utter devastation crept into young man'sface. The hand with the blaster fell to his side. His reaction was not at all what Vader had expected and it was deeply disconcerting. It brought back memories of-

_No_.

Vader gathered the Dark Side. It came to his side, licking hungrily at the boy, ready to strike**. **This... _child_had no right to stir any of his long buried former identity.

"You were wrong, boy. I killed the fool as I will kill you."

Vader ignited his lightsaber. It was time to end this.

The boy's voice had reduced to little more than a whisper. It shook with grief and anger battling for dominance in the emotional maelstrom he felt from the boy. "You killed my father..."

_What_?

Something in the boy changed. A new wash of grim determination replaced his hopelessness.

_Father_?

The boy fumbled on his utility belt and produced a small spherical shape that Vader was all too well acquainted with.There was despair in his blue eyes - that looked so much like Vader's once had – but his jaw was set firmly – like Padme's would when she had made up her mind.

"You killed him, so I will kill you."

The boy stretched out his hand, his thumb on the red flashing trigger of the thermal detonator.

The Force shouted a warning at Vader.

Vader was too far to reach the boy in time to stop him from arming the charge. He threw his hand out. An angry cry came from the boy as the detonator was flung from his grasp. He fumbled to catch it again, but Vader was already upon him.

The boy fell to the ground, the thermal detonator clattered useless to the floor in the corner.

The boy under him was thrashing, his free arm flailed as he tried to punch at for the control panel on Vader's chest but his strength was no match for Vader's. In a final bid the boy lunged for the silver and black hilt of Vader's lightsaber. Vader captured the wrist and held it pinned to the floor.

The lad was spouting curses, wishing Vader into the depth of a Sarlacc Pit.Unfazed, Vader watched him, taking in his features

Eventually the boy fell silent. He eyed Vader with uncertainty.

The Force vibrated around them like it hadn't in years.

ooo


End file.
